I sobbed into Ladybug's chest, finally letting everything out. Now I was just... empty.
"M'Lady, we have to... we have to make a plan." I said, forcing out the words. We couldn't afford to take anymore time for my stupid crying. But leaving Ladybug's arms right now sounded like stopping breathing.
"Are you sure?" She asked, her eyes filled with concern and compassion.
"Yeah. We have to save Paris, right?" I tried to give her a smile.
"Only if you're sure." I gave her a small nod and sat up straighter. "Well we have to be sure he's Shadowmoth before we go any further. Maybe search his house? I mean, he has to store all of those butterflies somewhere, so if we find a secret layer covered in akumas, we'll know it's him, right?"
"We could try that. But he never leaves his house. How are we going to make sure we don't run into him?"
Ladybug bit her lip, deep in thought. After a second, her eyes lit up and I knew she had thought of something. "The next time there's an akumatization, we have Rena and Carapace handle it and then go to his house. He'll be in his lair, if he has one, and we'll be able to catch him in the act. If we find him being a normal person, we'll just say we're making sure he's safe because there's an akumatized person nearby."
"That... might actually work. But what do we do if he is Hawkmoth?"
"Call in Rena and Carapace and finally end this. I mean, he can't be that hard to beat. He'll already have an akuma out, so he can't akumatize someone else to fight us, and without the people he creates, he's really just a man with a cane and a suit." And my dad.
"Okay. So now we just wait for an akumatization?"
"Yes. And get some rest, we need to be ready to face him." Even as she said it, I knew she knew that wasn't going to happen. Even if he wasn't my dad, the idea of facing Shadowmoth once and for all wiped away any chance of sleep.